WASHINGTON – The number of Americans filing initial claims (search) for jobless aid dipped 1,000 last week, due in part to fewer claims from autoworkers and other manufacturers, the government said on Thursday. First-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell to 312,000 in the week ended July 30, the Labor …

SEATTLE – Shannon Sullivan had to wash a lot of cars to pay her way to Olympia, where she plans to ask the state Supreme Court to allow her recall petition against Spokane’s embattled mayor to proceed. Mayor James West (search) was accused in newspaper stories earlier this year of …

LOS ANGELES – Nearly two months since his inauguration as the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in more than 100 years, Antonio Villaraigosa (search) faces the daunting and expensive task of delivering on his campaign promises. Curbing crime, fixing public education, planting one million trees and reducing traffic on …

THE FIRST THING to understand is that leasing is not renting. When you lease a car, you are arranging for the vehicle to be sold to a leasing company — usually an arm of the manufacturer. The leasing company then lets you use it for a monthly fee over a …

LOS ANGELES – Heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden (search) have put their mark in cement — along with the bony hand of its album cover skeleton mascot, “Eddie.” Band members added their handprints — with a fake skeleton hand to stand in for Eddie’s — to the Hollywood Rockwalk …

LONDON – British prosecutors said Sunday they would consider treason (search) charges against any Islamic extremists who express support for terrorism, as a Briton suspected of links to Al Qaeda (search) was deported from Zambia (search). Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent, had been detained in Lusaka …

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. – Millions of Americans like Kathy Currier (search) could soon run into trouble returning home from Canada because they don’t have passports. On a recent trip back across the border, Currier, 49, cleared security screening with her driver’s license and birth certificate. But if she needs a …

NEW YORK – Applications for home mortgages fell last week, its third consecutive drop, as refinancing waned and interest rates reached four-month highs, industry group figures showed Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association (search) said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity fell 0.9 percent to 745.0 in the week …

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd (search) sought to modernize his desert kingdom while balancing change against tribal tradition and orthodox Islam, but a stroke a decade ago left him a ruler in name only during tumultuous times for the world’s biggest oil producer. His death Monday came …

WASHINGTON – An American accused in court papers of having ties to Usama bin Laden (search) is now working for the Iraqi government’s Foreign Ministry, U.S. officials and a former CIA counterterrorism chief say. Iraqi-born Tarik A. Hamdi (search) was the “American contact” for one of bin Laden’s front organizations …